Down with the imperialist threats against Venezuela! No trust in Maduro’s authoritarian regime﻿

Publicado em30/01/2019|Comentários desativados em Down with the imperialist threats against Venezuela! No trust in Maduro’s authoritarian regime﻿

Statement approved by the First National Conference of Revolutionary Regroupment (Brazil) in January 2019

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On January 10th, Nicolas Maduro was sworn in for his second term as Venezuela’s president as his regime develops further and further towards authoritarianism. Right now, it is quickly transitioning from the semi-democratic Bonapartism it was under Chavez to a sheer dictatorship, heavily based on the military. This is happening due to a considerable loss in popularity after Hugo Chavez’s passing, followed by a deep economic crisis currently hitting the country. Last year, inflation rates went over 1000%, leading to severe degradation of the population’s living conditions, specially the working class.

As we analyzed in our 2017 article about Venezuela [1], the right-wing pro-imperialist opposition to the PSUV (United Socialist Party of Venezuela) and to Chavismo in general has been gaining momentum. They won the last legislative elections (2016) and conducted a series of mass demonstrations in 2017. The growing authoritarianism of Maduro’s regime to maintain itself in power can be seen in the de facto dissolution of Congress, which has been replaced by a Constituent Assembly which violates universal suffrage and makes sure the PSUV retains a majority; oppositional leaders and protesters have been arrested, as well as member of the Judiciary system, including those who consider themselves Chavistas but are critical of Maduro.

Despite its “socialist”
demagoguery, the PSUV government was never anything other than a government
attempting to promote conciliation of classes. It used oil funds to meet some
of the basic needs of the workers and the poor (something rare in Latin
America), but also addressed the capitalists’ desire to maintain a competitive
profit rate. They intended to conciliate the most immediate material needs of
the two fundamental classes of society and to favor a so-called “Bolivarian
bourgeoisie” which was supposedly “nationalist” and “responsible”. The drop in
oil prices in the international market powerfully revealed that this project
could not succeed in the long run. Without the large oil profits, the
Bolivarian project lost its ground and started hanging in the air in face of the
class contradictions of Venezuelan capitalism.

Unable to address the
bourgeois interests for growing profit rates or to continue making concessions
to the workers, the regime lost support from both classes it tried to
conciliate. It only survived because of the social support earned throughout
the years and now expects that the ceasing of the economic crisis will lead to
another cycle of wealth based on oil sales. Chavismo
is growing more and more autocratic and slim-shaped as it maintains its recipe
of “class collaboration” amid the cruel reality of Venezuelan capitalism. This
has led “Bolivarian Socialism” to mean the strict control of power in the hands
of the PSUV bureaucracy: a capitalist Bonapartist government which suppresses
struggles organized by the workers’ movement and prevents workers’ independent
organizing. At the same time, it reinforces the state’s military-bureaucratic
apparatus to defend itself from the increasingly hostile national and
imperialist bourgeoisies.

Since most of the ostensibly
socialist left in Venezuela has historically capitulated to the false
perspective of “Bolivarian socialism” built by the PSUV government, there is no
significant proletarian left-wing opposition to Maduro’s government today. As a
result, many of the workers who lost confidence in Maduro or any hope that
Chavez’s “good old days” can return, have become apathetic, tried to leave the
country or found expression for their anger in supporting the right-wing opposition,
that is, the section of the bourgeoisie with closest links to American
imperialism. As there is no clear consciousness that the crisis in Venezuela is
due to the capitalist system, and that only overcoming this system the main
problems being suffered by the masses can be solved, large numbers of workers
have the false expectation that some sort of “economic plan” from the
right-wing opposition could change the situation for better.

The reactionary opposition
and U.S. imperialism are feeling now comfortable enough to plan a coup d’état
to overthrow Maduro. If they succeed, they will surely liquidate all social
gains of Venezuelan workers which are crystalized in the current configuration
of forces of Venezuelan society. Their tactic has been to manipulate popular
dissatisfaction to give legitimacy to their coup plots (as was the case with
the series of street protests of 2017) while they study the possibilities of a
foreign military incursion into the country. Last August, U.S. President Donald
Trump asked his top consultants about the possible scenarios of a military
invasion against Venezuela. [2] He
even announced to journalists that he may consider a “military option against
Maduro”. [3] In September 2018, it
came to light the fact that top members of Trump’s government had held meetings
with Venezuelan army officers interested in a coup. [4] Despite publicly denying plans to invade Venezuela, Trump and
his advisors seem to be willing to go after this endeavor. A leading member of
the Colombian government led by Ivan Duque (which is extremely subservient to
U.S. imperialism) recently said that “If
[Brazilian President Jair] Bolsonaro declares a military intervention to
overthrow Maduro, he will have Colombia’s help” (October 2018). [5] Bolsonaro’s own xenophobic and
conspiratorial hysteria about an inexistent Venezuelan “communism” is also a
factor to have in mind in the continental chess board.

Maduro has responded to
these threats by reinforcing his military apparatus. During the last year, he
organized a “civil militia” which he claims has more than 1.6 million members. [6] He also approached Russia and China
in pursue of deals for guns, military training and equipment for Venezuelan
armed forces. [7] Recently there
have been rumors about the possibility of a Russian military basis being set in
the country. [8] Obviously, this is
not confirmed and official spokespeople deny these allegations. But it seems
clear that both sides are preparing for a confrontation.

In face of these growing
tensions, it is every socialist’s task to denounce the threats made by Trump,
Duque and Bolsonaro. Even if Maduro’s government has no capacity of meeting
workers’ interests, a military invasion against Venezuela, articulated or
headed by the United States, would mean the establishment of a puppet regime
which would further sell out to imperialism. It would increase the exploitation
of Venezuela’s natural resources and of its workers by the imperialist powers, increasingly
worsening the population’s already critical living conditions (to have an
example of this, it is enough to see what happened to Libya in 2011). [9]

Therefore, all American,
Colombian or Brazilian preparations for an attack against Venezuela must be met
with street protests and boycott actions, strikes and picket lines to block troops
and military equipment. Occupation of strategic public buildings could also
play a role, along with broadly agitating how harmful such attack would be for
all workers and peoples of Latin America. “Defense of democracy” is nothing but
a ludicrous excuse of the big powers in their attempt to better rob natural
resources and obtain cheap labor for the benefit of their capitalist barons and
millionaires. For working people, it would mean loss of sovereignty and doubled
exploitation.

While it is certainly
necessary to fight for democratic rights in Venezuela, it is up to Venezuelan
workers to lead this struggle, not imperialists or their stooges. If Maduro’s
government resists coup attempts or military invasions, it is a duty for all
socialists to tactically take its side, not aiming at defending the government
in itself, but the limited albeit important organization and achievements of
the working class which persist despite Maduro’s own intentions. It is a
general rule of class struggle that those who do not care about defending
conquered positions are incapable of fighting to gain new ones, much less of
fighting for power when opportunity arises. But the only alternative for
workers in face of the right-wing opposition and the growing authoritarianism
of Maduro’s government is to prepare to fight not only for democratic and
social gains, but also for an authentic government of Venezuelan workers. This
is not to be mistaken for a PSUV government in alliance with a “Bolivarian
bourgeoisie”, but instead it is the direct power of proletarian councils to democratically
rule over the country’s natural resources and the fruits of labor.

For this, a revolutionary
socialist party is needed in Venezuela, a party capable of giving a clear proletarian
political expression to the popular anger against Maduro’s government. A
starting point would be for those who consider themselves socialists to stop spreading
the false view that the PSUV government is somehow progressive, “anti-imperialist”
or even socialist. Despite some demagoguery in contrary, the PSUV government is
a bourgeois government ahead of the capitalist state. Today it needs the
workers on its side to defeat the imperialist threats. But if it succeeds in staying
in power, it will inevitably betray workers’ expectations in an attempt to
solidify new alliances with the bourgeoisie and of eliminating the risk of a
genuine socialist revolution. Class independence from Chavismo (as well as from the pro-imperialist opposition) is
therefore the only possibility for workers to win.

Defeat the war threats made by Trump, Duque and
Bolsonaro against the people of Venezuela! No trust in Maduro: workers must
strive to build real socialism through establishing proletarian councils as the
basis for a future workers’ state!

Addendum: On
January 23rd, after this statement had already been drafted, the President
of Venezuelan Congress, an organ which was nullified by Maduro’s new Constitution
but which remains functioning, declared himself the legitimate president of
Venezuela. He immediately received recognition from the U.S., Brazil and
several countries in Latin America. A few days earlier there had been a meeting
of members of the right-wing opposition with representatives of Brazil’s
Ministry for Foreign Affairs, U.S. government and the “Group of Lima”, a summit
of Latin American governments opposed to Venezuela. It is a maneuver preparing
the terrain for a coup d’état against Maduro. As stated before, workers must
boycott and denounce all moves by these reactionary forces and instead build separate
and independent organizations to overcome the limits imposed by Chavismo. Without giving Maduro any sort
of political support, in face of any coup which would deepen the imperialist
domination over the country, workers must do all they can to halt and defeat
such intention, through strikes, protests and blockages. Those who are far from
Venezuela must engage in internationalist actions to denounce the imperialist
crimes and intentions (once again, maintaining political independence from
Maduro).